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Friday, 03.02.2012
First Moscow Super Traffic Jams 2012: Everything at a stand still
Moscow. At 7.11pm on Thursday evening, traffic was not moving at all on Moscow streets. The worst traffic jams since the beginning of the year due to heavy snowfall and the extreme cold.
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Already in the morning the situation had been difficult but the evening rush hour presented the Russian capital with “strength 10 out of 10” on the scale created especially to measure traffic jams in large cities. Strength 10 translates into “better to use the Metro”.
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The South of the MKAD had a 30km traffic jam in one direction and a 40km jam in the opposite direction. In the North of the MKAD the situation was no different. Leningradsky Prospekt in direction Northwest was virtually sealed off and this in both directions. Most larger roads were also blocked. Experts have rarely seen traffic jams of this catastrophic extend. Usually the traffic jams reduce to scale 6-7 during the day, but this was not the case on Thursday.
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To change to public transport is no joy during the freezing cold
In other words, the majority of Moscovites preferred their own car to standing shivering at the bus stop in double-digit sub-zero temperatures. During this cold spell most frostbites could be found on hands and feet of people who were not dressed appropriately, waiting at the side of the road – while the bus was stuck in a traffic jam.
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Until a solution for the traffic problems in Moscow have been found there is still a long way to go. But at least the city administration has realised that the solution cannot be “more roads” but a development of a flexible public transport system in interaction with individual travel.
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